Adjustable support for electric appliances



.Sept. 16, 1924. I 1,509,068

J. C. HERRON I ADJUSTABLE SUPPORT FOR ELECTRIC APPLIANCES Filed March 26. 1923 I1 yen for.

J2me %erro/7 JAMES C. HERRON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO REFLECTOR & -ILLUMINATING 00., OF CHICAGO, ILLINO'IS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

ADJUSTABLE SUPPORT FOR ELEC'IRIIIC APPLIANCES.

Application filed March 26, 1923. Serial No. 627,938.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES C. HnRRoN, citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in an Adjustable Support for Electric Appliances; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention,

such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same. I

My invention relates to adjustable supports, and more particularly to means for supporting an electric socket and reflector combination in such a manner as to permit the axis of the reflector to be adjusted in any one of innumerable positions so as to vary the direction in which the light is projected without shifting the position of the base or bracket portion of the appliance.

In one of its immediate commercial applications, my invention relates to an adjustable support particularly adapted for use in connection with a flood light and I am therefore picturing and describing it in such a connection, although I do not wish to be limited to this particularapplicationof the various novel features tion.

While flood lighting has been employed for many years for effectively illuminating exterior portions of buildings, signs, or the like, such uses commonly involve a fixed and permanent position of the lamp and reflector arrangement. More recently, flood lighting has also been introduced for interior lighting effects, as for intensifying the illuminationon particular show window displays, on automobiles or other objects of my invenopenly placed within a show room, and in general for afiording an intensified illumination of any desired object either with or without an accompanying color effect. For such interior purposes, the direction in which the light is projected may need to be varied considerably according to the nature of the illuminated objects which are gradually substituted for one another, or according to the desired change in the effect produced at difi'erent times as to the illumination of one and the same object. Conse quently, it is highly desirable that flood lights employed for such interior purposes should permit of their being readily adjusted as to the direction in which the light is projected with respect to the. point at which, the flood lighting appliance as a whole is located. In practice, an ordinary bracket type of support is by no means ample for this purpose, as it is often desirable to fasten the base of the bracket in a rigid position, thereby preventing the bracket as a whole from being rotated. Besides, the ordinary types of bracket fiX- tures even ifrotated would only move the axis of the reflector in a single plane, thereby limiting the projection of the light substantially to objects corresponding in mid-height to that plane.

In my present invention, I aim to provide a flood light support which includes a base and which will permit the axis of the reflector to be moved through a wide range of angles with respect to the axis of the base, while also permitting the reflector as a whole to be rotated substantially around the axis of the base. Furthermore,

I aim to provide a construction for this purpose which will be cheaply manufactured and easily assembled, which w1ll ermit the rigidity of a heavy ball and socket joint to be secured while employing sheet metal socket parts, which will utilize a floa-tingly mounted socket portion as part of the joint, and which will permit the entire socketing arrangement .to be constructed without the necessity of prolonged deepdrawing operations. Still further and also niore detailed objects will appear from the following specification and from the accompanying drawings, in which drawings Fig. l is a perspective view of a complete flood light including an adjustable support embodying my..invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical section taken through the upper end of the support of Fig; 1 along the axis of the clamp ng bolt, or substantially along the dotted line A of F ig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a similar section taken at right angles to Fig. 2. r

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the substantially thimble-shaped metal cap which forms the tip of the supporting stem of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the socketing casting or thrust member which is supported on the clamping bolt and which cooperates with the curved jaws of the portion ofthe movable supporting part of my appliance,

Fig. 6 is an elevation of the jointed portion of my support, showing the adjustable mounted part in two positions.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the movable supporting part of my appliance.

In the embodiment of the drawings, Fig. 1 shows my appliance as used for supporting a colored light projecting flood light comprising a holder 1 having a lamp socket 2 projecting into the same and supporting a reflector 3, which reflector supports a holder 4 for a light-coloring plate 5 of gelatine or the like. The holder 1 is secured by screws 6 to a cross-head 7 on a stem 8 projecting from a metal ball 9, the said cross-head and stem being desirably cast integral with ball 9 so as to combine in forming the simple adjustably positioned supporting member of my appliance, it being. readily understood that other items than a lamp socket or a reflector combined might be secured to this member, when my appliance is to be used for other purposes.

For the relatively stationary portion of my appliance, I am showing an upwardly tapering metal shell 10, secured at its larger end to a weight 11, and am showing this as employed with the said larger and Weighted end in a horizontal position, in which the said member forms the standard for the pictured appliance, although it will be obvious that the axis of this member be tilted at right angles to the illustrated position, so as to cause the said stationary portion to form a bracket adapted to be screwed to a.

wall. The metal shell 10 is contracted adjacent to its smaller end to a diameter slightly greater than that of the ball 9, and has its end provided with a slot 12 sufficiently wider than the diameter of the stem 8 which slots permit the said stem to extend freely through this slot. 'The metal portions of the smaller end of the shell are curved' toward each other at opposite sides of the said slot, so as to afford tipportions corresponding substantially in curvature to the surface of the ball 9, and the slot 12 desirably has relatively narrow continuations 13 extending .towards the larger end of the metal shell for a suflicient distance to permit the opposed tip portions 14 and 15 to be flexed towards each other by a compressing action exerted on the substantially thimbleshaped tip at right angles to the medial plane of the said two slots.

To secure such a compressing action, I 1

provide a clamping member extending through the metal shell below the ball 9, this clamping member being here shown as a bolt having a shank 16, extending at right angles to the said slots. The bolt shank is kept from rotating by the engagement of aeoaoee correspondingly shaped perforation 17, and

this shank has a thumb nut 18 mounted on its free or threaded end.

Loosely mounted on the shank 16 of the bolt is a socketing casting or thrust member 19 which has its upper surface concaved to fit the surface of the ball 9 and which is continuously in engagement with the ball so as to support the latter and to hold the ball up against the tip portions 14 and 15. With the parts thus arranged, it will be obvious from Fig. 2 that upon tightening the nut 18 on the bolt, the tip portions 14 and 15 (which portions desirably are substantially quarter-spherical except for the width of the slots separating them) will be forced towards each other and by their curvature will exert a cam action forcing the ball against the thrust member 19, thereby clamping this ball in a rigidly fixed position in which the stem 6 extends in a predetermined direction. v

When the nut 18 is loosened, the clamping grip on the ball is released and this-ball can then be moved so as to change the direction of the stem through the range permitted by the length of the Wide slot portion 12. Furthermore, the adjustable supporting .member of which the ball forms a rigid part can then be rotated about the axis of its stem, so that the arrangement above described aflords an effective equivalent for a universal joint of the ball and socket type although employed light and cheaply manufactured sheet metal parts for a portion of the socketing. For example, Fig. 6 in its full lines shows the adjustable member tilted to a position differing considerably from that of Fig. 1 and with the cross-head extending in the general direction of the medial plane ofthe slot, while the dotted lines in the same figure show the adjustable member tilted until its stem extends horizontally and rotated so that its cross-head extends at right angles to the said plane. By using a. separate thrust member for cooperating with the tips of the slotted thimble in gripping the ball portion of the joint, I can readily employ relatively light metal for this thimble shaped portion, and by making the thrust mem er considerably smaller in diameter than the bore of the thimble I allow this member to slide on the bolt in adjusting its concaved upper surface to that of the ball during the tightening of the clamp, so that l do not require great accuracy in the manufacture of the various parts.

To avoid the time, expense and waste involved by drawing the thimble shaped tip out of the same piece, of metal with the casing 10, I desirably draw these two sheet metal parts from separate pieces of steel and secure them to each other. With that in mind, 1 preferably form a bead at the do not wish to be limited to this or other.

details of the construction and arrangement here disclosed, it being obvious that the same might be varied in many ways without de parting either' from the spirit of my invent1on or from the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A support for an electric appliance, comprising a stationary member having a hollow and substantially hemispherical tip provided with a slot extending in a medial plane thereof, a movable member comprising a ball disposed within the said tip and a stem projecting through the slot, a thrust member disposed within the stationary member and engaging the ball on the opposite side from the slot; and clamping means operable from outside the stationary member for forcing the tip portions at opposite sides of the slot towards each other and towards the thrust member, so as to causethese tip portions to cooperate in clamping the said ball against the thrust member.

2. A support as per claim 1, in which the clamping means comprise a bolt extending 7 through the stationary member transversely of the plane of the said slot and in which the thrust member is carried by the bolt.

3. A support as per claim 1, in which the thrust member issupported by the clamping means and has a concave surface portion engaging the ball. I

4. A support as per claim 1, in which the slot in the stationary member comprises a main portion extending around the tip and corresponding substantially in width to the diameter of the stem of the movable member, and in which the slot has relatively narrow continuations dividing the stationary member to an increasing extent so as to enhance the relative movabihty'of the said tip portions.

5. A support for an electric appliance,v

comprising an appliance supporting member having a stem terminating in a ball, a stationary sheet metal thimble having a curved end housing the ball, the said end having a longitudinal slot through which the said stem extends, a thrust member disposed within the thimble and holding the ball against the said curved end,.means associated with the thimble for forcibly approaching the end portions at opposite sides of the slot to cause these portions to clamp the ball against the thrust member, and a base member having a shank secured to the other end of the thimble.

6. A support for an electric appliance comprising an appliance supporting member having a stem terminating in a ball, a sheet metal thimble having a curved end housing the ball, the said end having a longitudinal slot through which the said stem extends, a thrust member disposed within the thimble and holding the ball against the saidcurved end,means associated with the 'thimble for forcibly approaching the end portions at opposite sides of the slot to cause these portions to clamp the ball against the thrust member, and a base member having a shank extending into the other end of thethimble, the last named end of the thimble being clamped upon the shank.

7. A support for an electric appliance comprising a stationary member having a tubular stem provided at its free end with a longitudinal slot; a movable member having a shank extending through the slot and a substantially spherical portion disposed within the said stem, the portions of the stationary member at opposite sides of the slot affording jaws overhanging the said spheri-.

JAMES C. HERRON. 

